SSS Cultivation: I Can Conquer Earth's Rank System
Chapter 40: Mad Lam

Chapter 40: Mad Lam

Leo looked ahead of Hunter and saw that Allan was fairing badly against the mecha-man. He was clutching his left knee as blood dripped down his black clothes. There was no way he could handle a mecha-man with his shadow quirk. The least he could do was hide for a while, manipulate shadows to confuse the mecha-man, and slow down the mecha-man’s attacks with the shadows. He was very skilled with his quirk but he wasn’t strong enough to deal any real damage to his enemies.

Leo had thought Allan was going to leave Hunter to fight this out alone as he said, but guess he isn’t a bad man like he appears. He saw that the man needed help, so he thought maybe he could throw the blue device at him to help him. But he reminded himself that Hunter now has the beast weapon, and if he was really a high ranking mutant teacher, then that should be enough to defeat the Mecha-men.

"Freak, I’m so sick of these metal butts. Get the shit over here, Hunter!" Allan yelled in pain.

Hunter joined him immediately after grabbing the beast sword that Leo gave him and shouting, "prepare to die, you bastards!"

Leo knew the sword was a changing point for Hunter against the Mecha-men, seeing how he felt charged after taking it. Hunter took a deep breath and charged toward one of the Mecha-men. Allan rushed right behind him. The first Mecha-man swung its massive weapon, but Hunter ducked just in time. He rolled to the side and slashed at its leg. Sparks flew off the metal, but it did enough to make the mecha-man stagger, giving them a much-needed break.

Seeing how the fight is going at Hunter’s corner, Leo turned away and faced the other side where Omal and Greg was now facing just one Mecha-man. This one seemed to be the strongest among them all, seeing how skilled it was with the beast sword and how fast its movement were.

At the other side, the fight was intense. Omal and Greg found themselves defending themselves against the single mecha-man more than attacking. The Mecha-man were quick and it was clearly the best fighter among them all. Its moves were precise. Omal got a couple of solid hits in with his spear which he formed with his Earth quirk, but that just seemed to make the Mecha-man angrier. Greg was panting now. He was obviously not skilled in combat like Omal. The mecha-man sliced Omal’s Earth spear away and before it could regroup, landed a heavy attack on Greg who couldn’t defend himself properly with his hardening quirk. Greg was sent crashing awkwardly against the wall.

Leo still searched for Lam but couldn’t find him anywhere. This corridor was long and wide but there was no way Lam could have passed without anybody noticing... Unless he’s hiding in one of the rooms that was open.

Leo stepped away from the bubble trapping the Cyborg and went to the spot where he last saw Lam lying on the floor, careful not to attract the attention of the mecha-man fighting Greg and Omal. He found a door that was closer to the spot and decided to go in there. Before he went in, he yelled into the passageway, "They are Cyborgs!"

He didn’t know if that information was needed but he felt it might help the teachers if they understood what creatures they are fighting.

He heard Hunter yell a reply happily, "Thanks, boy." Hunter seems to be enjoying the show ever since Leo gave him the beast weapon. After all, he’s the Beast Studies teacher for the freshers. He must know how to channel the powers of each beast weapon and even make it conform to his quirk if he wished.

Leo closed the door behind him and the noise from the hallway suddenly stopped. He was now inside a very large office. The office was where the meeting was supposed to hold, but since the Mecha-men has ruined the party, it’s now deserted.

There was a large table at the centre and the room was dimly lit, casting an eerie atmosphere in the office. Through the dim light, Leo could see a model of new earth with its separated parts and the core sticking only to the part still habited by humans. The other side was smaller and was painted red, indicating that it was occupied by the Xollante race. A tremor ran through Leo and he quickly looked away from the New Earth’s model.

"Lam? Lam where are you?"

Silence...

"Come out, it’s me Leo. The fight is almost over, the teachers are winning."

Leo searched for Lam and searched for the light switch at the same time. The dark room was not helping matters.

He tried to imagine that this was Hunter’s office so he could remember where the light switch is mostly located. He felt around with his hands and finally got to a wall. After another moment of blind search, he found the light switch by the wall and clicked on it.

Bright white light flooded the room instantly. Leo turned to continue his search of Lam, but as he turned, he saw Lam standing behind him with scattered hair, a bleeding nose, a homeless look and a metal pipe in his hand.

"Lam! Oh my, you startled me," Leo said, relieved. "Let’s get out of here, there’s enough space in the middle of the hallway to escape. Or we can wait for the teachers to finish their fight then we return to our dorms.

Lam didn’t move an inch. He looked like someone who really needs help, but doesn’t want one. "Why?" he asked.

"Why what? Why should we escape or what do you mean?" Leo questioned.

"Why do you have to be here?" Lam said.

Leo scoffed and waved the question away. "It’s a long story. But why are you here with that huge teacher?"

"The same reason you’re here with Hunter, it seems... But I’m curious, why are you here? Were you promised the same thing like I was?"

Leo thought...If Omal brought Lam and Hunter brought him, and Hunter and Omal belonged to the same secret group, then Leo and Lam are here for the same thing. But Leo decided to pretend not to understand what Lam was saying. "Erm... Hunter brought me here for...erm...for detention, yes."

"Stop lying to my face, you sneaky nuthead," Lam yelled and slammed the metal pipe hard against the table.

Leo suddenly became wary of Lam. "When did the cowardly Lam become so scary?"

"Is it that the powers you have aren’t enough? Omal approached me and promised to make me strong, he said they only care for the weak. But why are you here if you have such a quirk? Why?!"

"Well, it complicated and I can’t share the story with you now. Let’s just get out of here." Leo persuaded the angry Lam even though he didn’t know why he was angry.

"I’m not leaving here until I’ve achieved what I’m promised. You can leave for all I care, at least you have a quirk to fall back on."

No matter how Leo looked at it, he still didn’t get why Lam was angry with him. So, he said, "so, you’ll rather die than return quirkless? Who told you you’ll be granted a quirk tonight? is this what you meant when you said you’d become the King of the Impossibles? You’re banking on their promise?"

"And is this your own way of getting stronger to avoid being bullied by Jade and Riley because of their sister who is your girlfriend? Don’t act surprised, everyone knows the story," Lam spat out angrily.

Leo suddenly grew red with anger. His patience with Lam was running out. But instead of lashing out a reply, he decided to leave without Lam. "I wish you’ll eventually come to your senses. See, it’s almost morning and there won’t be any time for the meeting again. Anyways, bye. See you later."

He stepped out of the large room and the battle sounds from the corridor greeted his ears again.

He looked behind and saw that Greg was now lying on the floor, limp and only Omal was battling the mecha-man at their corner. And he wasn’t fairing much either.

He looked forward and saw that Hunter was dealing a great deal of damage to one mecha-man with the beast weapon, and Allan was also on the floor, weak. So, there’s a free mecha-man who Hunter was also trying to stop so it wouldn’t kill Allan.

Leo was trying to decide who to help between Hunter and Omal when he heard a tiny voice call his name from the middle of the corridor.

His head jerked forward in that direction and he saw Rosa run into the hallway with two beast weapons in her hands. Leo almost fainted at the sight of her. "No, not again," he lamented.

"Who needs help?" she said.